Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, May 8, 2026
The above neighborhood scene, which I snapped Thursday of this week, causes me great delight. But you probably can’t yet tell why.
The above house is not mine. I don’t know whose it is. The sky is delightful, a temperate combination of cooling clouds, but that’s not the most delightful part. I had to resize the photo to fit it into the recommended size for the blog, so you can’t zoom it in and still see the good part.
So here’s an original-size zoom-in:
See those two black specks, one bigger than the other? That’s why I took the photo. The bigger speck is a bald eagle, doing desperate aerial acrobatics to dodge the smaller speck, which is another bird relentlessly harassing it and trying to drive it away.
Why do the smaller birds do this? I found an informative answer online:
When you spot Bald Eagles around town, it’s likely that you might watch them being scolded and chased by smaller birds or crows. This is because while eagles predominantly eat fish, amphibians, crabs, and small mammals they are not above snatching up other birds or their young. They also frequently engage in kleptoparasitism, a feeding behavior where they harass other birds until they are forced to drop their catch of fish. So, while eagles are striking and impressive birds, their tendency towards playing the big bully of the bird world makes it understandable that they would be subjected to a fair bit of teasing as well.
From https://birdsconnectsea.org/2026/04/06/large-and-in-charge-bald-eagles-in-washington/
As I say, when I see this happening, I’m delighted. It reminds me of the “great controversy between Christ and Satan,” the devil’s constant harassment of humanity and especially those who follow Jesus. This battle has been happening for many centuries, and Jesus at one point allowed Himself to become its victim.
But He did so in order to take our sins upon Himself and make it possible for us one day to fly away with Him to His Father’s house, and to eventually watch (here’s the good part) as Satan will be destroyed, never to harass us again.
For a thorough, text-by-text history of the great “bully of the universe,” including his final fate, click this link: